Advanced voting begins Sunday in Kitchener-Centre by-election

You have seen the signs, you may have been sent your voter card and now, it’s time to head to polls if you live in Kitchener-Centre. Advanced polls open Sunday.

The major party candidates include the NDP’s Debbie Chapman, Green Party’s Aislinn Clancy, Liberal’s Kelly Steiss and Progressive Conservative’s Rob Elliott.

It’s a high stakes by-election, with the riding that includes Downtown Kitchener, historically flipping across all parties. In fact, over the last seven elections, the riding has seen a Conservative in power, two Liberals and a New Democrat. That New Democrat, Laura Mae Lindo, left the riding in July, taking a position at the University of Waterloo. She held the position over two elections.

Now the candidates face a few challenges themselves, Conservative Rob Elliott lives 160 km away in Keswick and Liberal Kelly Steiss won’t have an official party leader behind her until December 2.

The Orange party is also getting closely looked at, with the NDP’s still reeling from the Sarah Jama controversy, a former NDP MPP censured and removed from the party after refusing to take down controversial pro-Palestinian social media post.

Speaking on the Mike Farwell Show, Peter Woolstencroft, professor emeritus in political science at the University of Waterloo, says the Greens also have an uphill climb in this byelection, but have a lot of momentum following the Green Party victory on a federal level, with MP Mike Morrice winning the Kitchener-Centre seat in 2021.

Advanced voting is open Sunday, November 19 through to Friday, November 24 and Election Day is November 30th.

Full details on how to vote can be found here.